The American League West race is still very much in the air, even with mere days -- hours, if you're partial to more difficult arithmetic -- remaining in the 2026 Major League Baseball season. This would normally yield a certain amount of taut intrigue, given that a playoff berth and World Series aspirations hinge upon the outcome. This, though, is the AL West in 2026, and normality is not welcome here.
It is the unknown punctuated by the compelling. The unknown box is checked, as the Rangers and Astros are tied atop the divisional standings, with the Mariners still clinging to mathematical life. But compelling? 'Tis not.
If you will, force your eyes upon those standings, current going into Thursday's slate, and all will be revealed: Compelling? Foul-smelling, which rhymes with compelling? As you can see, every team in the AL West is presently below .500.
Since the Astros and Rangers have just four games remaining in the regular season, there's a high chance that the AL West will encumber baseball with the first sub-.500 playoff team in the annals of such things. Yes, even in this ongoing era of playoff bloat, no losing team has ever won a division title or even claimed a wild-card berth. The 2005 Padres at 82-80 for the moment hold the "record" for worst regular-season mark by a playoff team, but the eventual AL West champ, assuming it's not the Mariners, will need to win out in order to avoid breaking that record.
Probing a bit more deeply into the revolting depths of the AL West, these five teams are currently a combined 84 games under .500. Really, though, the AL West has been lucky not to be even worse. If you look at those run differentials -- not that you want to or that it's advised -- you'll find that the teams of the AL West in the aggregate have been outscored by the opposition, which of course means teams not in the AL West, by a total of 467 runs.
It also speaks to how lucky the teams of the AL West have been in 2026, as hard as it is to believe such a thing. You can estimate a team's deserved record by calculating it from their run differential, or their runs allowed subtracted from their runs scored. Based on their run differentials, the teams of the AL West should be a combined 90 games under .500.
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